Stonehenge

The great and ancient stone circle of Stonehenge is one of the wonders of the world. What visitors see today are the substantial remnants of the last in a sequence of such monuments erected between c. 3000 BC and 1600 BC. The Stonehenge we see today is aligned on the midwinter setting sun and the midsummer sunrise.There has always been intense debate over quite what purpose Stonehenge served. Certainly it was the focal point in a landscape filled with prehistoric ceremonial structures. It also represented an enormous investment of labour and time. A huge effort and great organisation was needed to carry the stones tens - and sometimes hundreds - of miles by land and water, and then to shape and raise them. Stonehenge's orientation in relation to the rising and setting sun has always been one of its most remarkable features. Whether this was because its builders came from a sun worshipping culture or because - as some have asserted - the circle and its banks were part of a huge astronomical calendar, remains a mystery.